It’s almost that most glorious time of year: hockey season. The final pre-season game still saw several big roster spots up for grabs. A slow-paced, feisty game in Utah at Maverick Arena (home of Colorado’s ECHL affiliate Utah Grizzlies) ultimately ended 2–1 in favor of the unnamed hockey club of Utah. The Colorado Avalanche ended the preseason with just one win to five losses.
We all know pre-season results aren’t important. What matters is which players made a case for cracking the lineup on October ninth in Vegas for the season opener. We are going to look at the biggest risers and fallers with the preseason finally behind us and speculate on the last few tough choices the Avalanche need to make.
Risers
Ivan Ivan
Calum Ritchie and Nikolai Kovalenko will grab the lion’s share of attention as Avalanche rookie phenoms, but Ivan Ivan has been the most consistent NHL caliber rookie this preseason. Ivan’s forecheck causes turnovers, crashes, grabs rebounds, and produces in a very Logan O’Connor kind of way. I think Ivan is an obvious choice for fourth-line center starting the year, if coach Jared Bednar will trust a rookie in that spot.
Ivan scored from Joel Kiviranta’s rebound in the first period for the lone tally of the night. There were four other solid goal scoring chances for Ivan by my count. He was very noticeable all over the ice. The young forward did everything you could ask to prove he belongs in the bottom-six for this team.
Putting the biscuit in the basket! https://t.co/deYOChlEht pic.twitter.com/EwYHMvsHY5
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) October 5, 2024
Sam Malinski
Being penciled in alongside Calvin de Haan as the third pairing defender is exactly where Sam Malinski has earned. Malinski’s stellar preseason finished in a solid, if less flashy, effort that showed why the pairing from tonight will probably draw in for opening night.
Fallers
Alexandar Georgiev
Alexandar Georgiev found his stride for stretches of the second period, but that first period goal is the stuff of nightmares. Rust is definitely still the reason as it is Georgiev’s second start of preseason, but letting in very soft early goals was a trend all last season and in the playoffs. This goal:
Dylan Guenther has such a nice shot#UtahHC pic.twitter.com/pQtMvRswbC
— Cap’n Cook (@JazzePinkman) October 5, 2024
Is about as soft of a five-hole as you will see from an NHL starter. With Justus Annunen showing out in his last pre-season game the questions about whose net this should be will start early for the Avalanche.
Chris Wagner
It feels a bit like salting an open wound, but Chris Wagner was struggling in this game. Already waived with reassignment orders to the Colorado Eagles, Wagner drew into the lineup, seemingly to give Nathan MacKinnon a night off. Seeing Wagner playing with Kelly and Ivan solidified his position in the organization. Wagner isn’t ready for this NHL roster, but should injury strike, he is a less desirable version of some other bottom-six players they kept instead of him. Wagner has a dominant presence and will be valuable to the Eagles this year.
The top-six bubble: Nikolai Kovalenko vs. Calum Ritchie
The toughest decision to make when assessing the young talents on display for Colorado is which talented rookie will chase Calder glory in the Avalanche top-six.
Neither really pulled away in what was a very slow and physical game against Utah. That leaves the comparison the same as it has been. The more physical Kovalenko to replace Valeri Nichuskin’s forechecking? Or the electric puck movement of Ritchie to replace Gabriel Landeskog’s power play and offensive production? The answer likely will be a mix of both. Don’t expect to see a winner before the season. The Avalanche will have a nine-game trial period with Ritchie’s entry-level contract before they have to decide whether to keep him in the NHL or send him to juniors in Oshawa. Based on what we have seen from Ritchie so far, I expect he will get that nine game sample to show he belongs before they make that choice.
The time for preseason is now, finally, over. On Wednesday, October 9, at 8:00pm MT. The Avalanche open the season in Vegas to face the Vegas Golden Knights, nationally broadcast on TNT with streaming on MAX.